The Madaurian and Scillitan (proconsular Africa) martyrdoms apparently took place a few months after the death of Marcus, but these martyrdoms were certainly a continuation of the persecuting policy of Marcus. And these awful sufferings to which the Christian communities were exposed during these two reigns are not only learned from the few authentic Acts of Martyrdom preserved to us, but from various and numerous notices of contemporary writers which we come upon--embedded in their histories, apologies, and doctrinal expositions. Some of these are quoted[37] verbatim. The testimony we possess here of this continuous and very general persecution during these reigns when carefully massed together is simply overwhelming.[38] * * * * * Nor is the behaviour of the two Antonine Emperors, who ruled over the Roman Empire for a period of some forty-two years, towards their Christian subjects in any way at variance with their known principles. Such men, with their lofty ideals, with their firm unyielding persuasion that Rome owed her grandeur and power, her past prosperity and her present position as a World-Empire, to the protection of the Immortals whom their fathers worshipped, could not well have acted differently. We have seen what was the unvarying policy of Pius in his earnest efforts to restore the purer, simpler life led by the old Romans who had built up the mighty Empire; how faithfully he had followed in the lines traced out by Vergil, who, as we have already quoted, wound up his exquisite picture of the ancient Roman life with the solemn injunction “_in primis venerare deos_.” The pupil and successor of Pius, the noble Marcus, was if possible more “Roman” than Pius; and his devotion to the gods of Rome was even more marked. As a boy he was famous for his accurate knowledge of ancient Roman ritual. When only eight years old he was enrolled in the College of the Salii, reciting from memory archaic liturgical forms but dimly understood in his days.[39] Before his departure for the dangerous war with the Marcomanni, he directed that Rome should be ceremonially purified according to the ancient rites; and for seven days the images of the gods were feasted as they lay on their couches in the public streets. But it is in his private life that the intense piety of the second Antonine emperor comes out with ever startling clearness. It was no mere State reasons which prompted Marcus to uphold the ancient cult of Rome. He evidently believed with a fervent belief in these old gods of Rome. For instance, if his dear friend and tutor Fronto was ailing, he would pray at the altars of the gods that one very dear to him might be eased of his pain.